‘What a big loss he is’ – Wayne Rooney rues Harry Maguire absence as England legend makes ‘disjointed’ claim

England were poor as they were punished by Iceland in a turgid 1-0 defeat at Wembley in the final warm-up game before the European Championship. The winning goal came through a string of defensive mishaps and England legend Wayne Rooney pointed to the missing Harry Maguire as a key loss for the side.

Speaking as a pundit for Channel 4, Rooney stated: “Tonight the back line were a little bit disjointed at times, and that’s through lack of experience.

“That’s something I’m sure Gareth and the coaches will be showing them, you have to get that right because we’re so excited by the attacking players we’ve got, they have to be backed up by the back line and being aggressive.

“I think tonight actually shows the importance of Harry Maguire to this England team and what a big loss he is to this squad.”

Maguire has long been paired alongside John Stones in the England defence and his replacement will be vastly inexperienced compared to the Manchester United defender. Maguire has more caps (63) than Marc Guehi (11), Ezri Konsa (4), Joe Gomez (15) and Lewis Dunk (6) combined – 36.

England kick off their European Championship campaign against Serbia on Sunday 16th June and will be dreaming of going one further than they did in the last tournament. The Three Lions lost in the final against Italy and will hope their more experienced side will fare better this time.